John P. Merrick Q.C.

Professional Accomplishments and Skills

• More than thirty-five years of advocacy of client interests, resolution of disputes through litigation or negotiation and provision of general counsel on a wide range of legal issues.
• Effective communicator.
• Mediator and Arbitrator.
• Adjunct Professor Dalhousie Law School
• Organizer and presenter of various advocacy and legal programs for lawyers.
• Ability to assimilate large amounts of information and to identify the key facts and issues necessary to achieve a successful result.
• Skill at finding acceptable solutions.
• Knowledge of the law and an understanding of its application in a wide range of situations, including corporate matters, commercial transactions, tort and contract liability and employment and labour issues.
• Experience with the procedures of judicial and administrative bodies and an ability to make reliable predictions of the outcome of such proceedings.
• Awareness of current developments in alternative dispute resolution and methods of structuring the resolution process to maximize the desired objective.

Qualifications and Affiliations

• Senior partner in the firm Merrick Jamieson Sterns Washington & Mahody.
• Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
• Queens Counsel.
• Member of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society (President 1996-1997).
• Member Canadian Bar Association (President Nova Scotia Branch 1981-1982).
• Member of the American Arbitration Association, the ADR Institute of Canada Inc. and the ADR Atlantic Institute.
• Member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
• Director of Nova Scotia Continuing Legal Education Society (President 1977-1980).

Education

• BA Acadia University (1964)
• LLB Dalhousie University Law School (1967).
• Certificate in mediation Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers (1998).

Personal

Married to Deborah Lyn Craig. Father of Chris, Evan and Annaka. Active in community organizations including Fundraising Chairman Public Legal Education Society (1997-2000), Honorary Counsel reachAbility Nova Scotia (Present). Avid skier, hiker and unpublished writer.